Recognizing Divinity With Ornate Preparations

23 July 2016

The denomination “Raksha Bandhan” is derived from the clerical Sanskrit language signifying “Tie of Safeguard” (“Raksha” meaning Safeguard and “Bandhan” meaning Tie). One of the most favored and a sacred festival of India, “Raksha Bandhan” is a pious commemoration of the ingrained nexus between a brother and a sister of the same blood, of the same family or of the same lineage. Patronage of historical anecdotes and gradual escalation of the communication between the two opposite sexes have further favored the welcome evolution of this commemoration in lauding the nurtured linkage between a man and a woman having no kinship connection but bonded from heart by the chaste fraternal feel. At this blessed conviviality a blood or “feel” sister decorates the right wrist of her blood or “feel” brother with a dappled and divine cord esteemed by Hinduism as Rakhi. This seraphic string fundamentally binds a brother with the vow of endorsing his sister in her every venture and cardinally urges a sister to yearn to God for her brother’s prosperity and peace. An essentially hallowed carousal, the fete of “Raksha Bandhan” is a gifted spectrum of India in evincing to the rest of the world the certitude and chastity of the “Bhai-Behen” (Brother-Sister) nexus shared by Indian men and women.

The celebration of the divine bash of Rakhi is essentially emblazed by dulcet Indian rituals. On the prime day of “Raksha Bandhan”, both the sister and the brother deck up themselves in the ethnic Indian garbs of Sari or Salwar Kameez and Pyajama Kurta or Punjabi Pyjama. They meet up, generally at parents’ house or at the house of the brother in the welcome presence of their parents, grandparents and other important elderly relatives. The brother and sister then sit face-to-face and the sister, at first, performs the beatific custom of “Aarti” wherein she revolves, with all the piety, for three times, a Puja Thali garnished with Sweets, an enlightened candle or lamp and the blessed cord of Rakhi. This Puja Thali with Rakhi is one of the most auspicious Rakhi gifts in the festival of Raksha Bandhan.